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ok I bought my wife an adult crested gecko about 4 months ago. (i am a snake person not a lizard person). The gecko is in a 20g terrerium with repti bark bedding, water and several hides and stuff to climb on. there is a red night light heat lamp keeping the cage around 85 degrees. He is fed mango, nectirines, peaches, baby food, and occasionaly crickets. about a week ago he dropped his tail for no reason. no one but me handles him and i hadnt been in the cage. since then he has grown more and more lathargic. He is not eating anything and is no longer useing his back legs. Im guessing its time to freeze him but i would like to know if there is anything else to do. or what mistakes i have. More then likely he will have to be replaced with another "stickey toed lizard" as my wife replys to them. I realy loosing animals, so any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks alot, Mike. ps i will not freeze until a couple of post have replied so shoot me some suggestions

Well, first off, most people will recommend that he should be fed the commercially available crested gecko diet rather than baby food, etc. The baby food and fruit, while not specifically harmful, is not as well balanced for his nutritional needs, and may have left him with a nutritional deficiency of some sort, which could easily lead to the symptoms described. Calcium deficiency, in particular, could lead to easy bone breakage, which would of course explain not using his back legs.

In addition to that, 85 F is way too hot for a crested - the hottest you should ever allow their enclosure to get is 80 or so - anything above 82-83 and they start reacting quite badly to it.

As far as saving him goes, he sounds pretty far gone, but sometimes people have been able to bring them back. Try to get him eating crested gecko diet and try to get some calcium in him - presuming a vet wouldn't recommend euthanasia, I'd bet the recommendation would be a calcium shot, possibly with a b-vitamin shot to go with it in order to stimulate appetite. If you can get some proper nutrition in him, he *might* stand a chance, but I certainly wouldn't want to be in your place right now.

Best of luck with this - I hope he can pull through. Whether he pulls through or you end up getting another, please review your husbandry; crestedgecko.com has a good caresheet:

http://crestedgecko.com/cg_care.htm

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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

It sounds like stress to me. I know youve had him for four months now, but thats what it seems like when he drops his tail like that. I would suggest that you drop the temp and night with misting sessions twice daily. You may even need to start force feeding crickets dipped in calcium with the head cut off. (it sounds a bit off i know but the antenna irritates there face and eyes when the body is rubbed against there mouth)..I would aslo put him in somthing smaller so you can keep a better eye on him. I had a somewhat similar case, and was able to pull my female out of it...it took about a 3-4 weeks i would except the same if not longer for yours

GOOD LUCK =)

thank you both for the replys. we do mist him once a night but i will start doing it twice. ill try force feeding the crickets right now. he is in pretty bad shape, i feel bad for the little guy. what do you believe could cause the stress, aside from heat. I have cooled him off and he is in a 16qt sterillite now. ill try everything. thanks again

mike

P.S.
Why cant all pets just eat mice every 4 days, live on news paper and be happy for years and years.

anyone will agree with this, stress here is at least 95% heat related, if not 100%

>>anyone will agree with this, stress here is at least 95% heat related, if not 100%

I will indeed agree with that - it didn't sound from the original description as though there was anything else providing stress, so that almost has to be it, presuming no excessive amount of handling (which didn't sound like the case.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

well itd be easier to say what you did right in a list unfortunately. cresteds, and all rhacs are very different from any others. i keep mine in room temp in all bnut the summer months, which they find an a/c unit giving them a high of 76. the food should be crested gecko diet mixed with water or baby food. crickets should be offered every once in a while. he dropped the tail due to stress and trying to keep the little nutrients it had in its body. that is the point you should have posted. it also sounds like calcium deficiency played a role, the back legs not being used. you could attempt to bring it back, but no promise can be made. i am not trying to be mean with any of this, ive made mistakes with everything ive had, its all learning experience. next time, especially if you dont keep the species, please do your research to the best extent.

no offence takin what so ever. any how i have gotten him to eat 2 headless crickets dusted with reptivite, i he is at 78 degrees and actualy is looking a little better. after misting him realy well last night he was sheding to day so i was obviously not misting him enough. yesterday i though he was dont for sure but now i think he has a chance. Thanks guys, ill keep ya posted.

well thats great to hear, but my number one concern is its rear legs. is it moving them yet? also a sign of calcium deficiency is shaking, almost like shivering.

It's great that you're doing as others have suggested. I have a couple more things to add/stress.

I would really get on the getting the Crested Gecko Diet, it can be found at PetCo's and Petsmarts in a small bottle, usually yellow or purple cap (it the same stuff, but they just recent changed the labeling). It is a complete diet, and better for them than crickets. It has everything needed, meaning you won't have to add calcium or anything. You might have to mix it up with a bit of babyfood instead of water to get him to eat it at first, but slowly start using less baby food and more water and he should be fine.
I'd just offer it to him for a little bit, spread it thin somewhere so you can see if he is taking licks from the bowl, if not, you can (after a couple days after having it in the cage) just drop some on the tip of their nose which they should lick off to force feed it if you must. (I would avoid this though, as it seems he's pretty stressed already, and stress can make calcium deficiencies worse.)

Another thing is do you have a water bowl available? If you don't, put a shallow dish of water in there. Some breeders say not to include a water bowl and that the water from misting is fine, but I find it beneficial if it is available to them at all times, it also helps the humidity in the cage.

One more point on him shedding, sometimes they don't do so well and some will get stuck on their toes or even around their whole legs, just watch for this. If it is not taken care of it can cut off circulation and they can lose parts of their toes. If you see this, some cool water and rubbing with a q-tip should be fine to get the shed off.

Please keep us posted on how this little guy is doing. I'm glad you came here for help rather than just freezing him,

one thing zarula, there is nowhere enough calcium in cgd to bring a deficent gecko up to speed. i almost killed one of my females that way after she laid some eggs. she got real rough, no rear leg movment, twitching, etc. if its real low on calcium, which the rear legs suggest, add more calcium. when the motion starts back up in the legs, then its ok to use just the powder. id also reccomend it to anyone breeding them, especially when the end of egg laying comes up and their stores are gone.

I'm sure you would agree though that the CGD is better, and less stressful, than forcing headless crickets down the geckos throat?

I think I'd have to disagree with it not being able to bring back geckos though, I've also had a leg twitching, calcium deficient, and too small to be bred (she was in someone else's care just before) come back on just the CGD. She's still laying eggs right now, and hasn't had a shake or tail kink since, and she is fed solely CGD, has crickets once for a treat.

If you feel the need for more calcium in the diet, there are mixtures available with extra amounts of calcium added, they are only available online though through Repashy Superfoods suppliers, and this gecko would probably expire if fed only crickets up until the time the special super-calcium CGD arrived.

listen to the other posters about care for this little one...i cant say much, im new to cresteds, but i wanted to say putting a reptile in the freezer is NOT an AVMA approved method for reptile (or any animals) euthanasia, its not approved because its NOT HUMANE!!
most vets would put something so small in that bad of shape down for nothing or near nothing.
this was a message from your local vet tech...
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

well, gecko is doing 100% better. he/she is moving aroung the cage using back legs normaly back to its old self. i think temp had alot!!!! to do with it. I actualy fed a new born pinky mouse (full of mothers milk) yesterday and it ate it on its own. (is that good or bad feeding pinks). i picked up some gecko diet but gecko doesnt seem to care for it. But my wife an i are both very excited that gecko is doing good. thank you all for all your help. as for po, though freezing isnt your prefered method of (puting down and animal) When i snake is sick where it will not recover freezing is perfect, the snake goes to sleep and dies, so does any other animal your vitals slow and you go to sleep. that is not humane. have you ever seen an animal die from lethal injections at the vets office. I would rather go to sleep and die rather then urinate and defecate myself while convulsing while all my organs shut down then die miserably. but other than that thanks.

Pinkies are not a normal part of a crested's diet, but in terms of getting this one going, it might have been ok - at least it'll have been high in fat and calcium. I probably would not feed him too many more pinks though. As far as getting him to eat CGD, it may take a little time to get him switched over. Start by mixing it 50/50 with the fruit baby food you've been feeding and gradually increase the percentage of CGD until it's 100%. Another thing to do to get them used to the idea that CGD is food is dusting crickets with it - once they've eaten a few crickets dusted with CGD, they recognize the taste and smell as food.

On the euthanasia thing, freezing does not sound like a pleasant way to go to me, but then, my current job puts me in a -15 F freezer for extended periods (can be upwards of 3 hours sometimes) on a fairly regular basis, so I probably have a bit more firsthand experience than you on that. Even 1/2 hour in there can result in significant levels of pain in your extremities. I personally would much rather be lethally injected - at least that's fast. Also, the one animal I've ever seen euthanized by lethal injection didn't seem to suffer at all - it was over in a second or two and there were no convulsions, defecation, etc.
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear

i had to euthanize a gecko once, a baby leo. you put them in the fridge first, they dont feel it and go into a hibernatory state. you then move it to the freezer. it was a have to do thing, impaction internal bleeding and paralysis. i tried anything possible first of course. its very upsetting..

Good to hear he's doing alright,
As Olstyn said, pinkies aren't normally part of their diet, and probably shouldn't be continued. I say this because cresties aren't generally fed mealworms because sometimes if they are fed ones about to shed it can be too hard for them to digest, I can only imagine the bones of a pinky mouse would be pretty hard too.

The CGD can be mixed with 50/50 apple sauce or baby food or whataver you prefer to get them to eat it at first, it's better than just baby food. This should be just to get the to get use to the taste though and the normal water should phase out the baby food. (Though if you like mixing the baby food there is just the Base part out there, with no flavoring, which has directions on it for mixing with baby food or fruit, you can order it online from Repashy Superfoods suppliers if you like that idea.)

My only thing about freezing is that crested geckos can survive and much cooler temperatures than most snakes, so I'm not entirely sure that they would go to sleep. Another thing is the sudden cold surface you put them on can't be too pleasant, unless you put them in something semi insulated and let is cool down slowly. Also, whatever dog you saw must have had an adverse reaction, since that doesn't normally happen (and I'm not just saying it, my friend is a vet tech, she does it a lot.)

when an animal is frozen the limbs and exterior tissues die long before the internal organs, this is painful, just ask anyone who has had frostbite, reptiles they last LONGER because they are exothermic, thus prolonging the suffering, just imagine the pain of frozen crystals floating in the veins and tissue dieing while your mind is still working, unable to move or save yourself.

have i seen an animal die of lethal injections? YES, sadly i hold many animals a day, or hold the owner as they hold the animal, its one of the worst parts of my job, but i can be comforted that they die PEACEFULLY! they fall asleep, as they would for a Sx, but are given to much so they do not wake up, yes, sometimes they urinate/defecate on them self, but its after they have lost the ability to control, and so also the ability to feel and so they dont know they have done it, im so sorry if you had a bad time @ a euthanasia, it should never be a bad thing, thus the definition of euthanasia literally "good death" in ancient greek, its a right we have in vet medicine, i wish we had for people, i know if im ever in a place where my life is so bad, you bet ill find one of my vet friends to let me go that way!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

Well the little guy is doing great, hes back in his big cage where it is 75 degrees. He eats his crested gecko diet every night his colors have actualy changed a bit. he went form a drab tan to having dark spots and patterns on his back. So i guess all he needs now is a prosthetic tail.
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That's great news! I very much expected recovery to take much longer than this if it happened at all. Kudos to you for listening to the advice given here and saving him! Well done!
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0.1 Albino Leopard Gecko - Tigger
0.1 Crested Gecko - Pooh-Bear